Development of new green process of rutile production by applying non-equilibrium state

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26630374
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Metal making/Resorce production engineering
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Nagasaka Tetsuya 東北大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (30180467)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 合成ルチル / チタン原料 / イルメナイト / シュードブルッカイト / クロール法 / 非平衡反応 / 酸化還元反応 / グリーンプロセス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Natural ilumenite ore was oxidized in air at the temperature lower than 700oC to convert FeTiO3 into Fe2O3 and TiO2 without the formation of pseudobrookite Fe2TiO5 which is hard material for reduction and leaching. The oxidized ore was reacted with hydrogen stream at around 500oC to reduce Fe2O3 to metallic Fe, and then the ore was supplied to the leaching process with diluted HCl to dissolve Fe to the solution. As the result, high purity TiO2 of over 97% was obtained. The greatest advantage of this process is quite low energy consumption in comparison with the conventional processes such as titanium slag process. Therefore, the basic idea of this process was proposed as a patent. The investigation on the detail mechanism and scale up test will be conducted as a next step of our research.

Free Research Field

金属生産工学